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Report: EU proposes spending more on southern states, less on eastern nations

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Report: EU proposes spending more on southern states, less on eastern nations

The European Commission proposed to allocate more funds to southern EU member states beset by economic and migrant crises and less to former communist countries of central Europe as part of its 2021-2027 budget, Reuters reported May 29.

The seven-year budget would rise to €1.1 trillion from the current €1 trillion, with a third of the spending earmarked for cohesion policy; that is, to lessen the divide between rich and poor regions of the EU, according to the report.

The proposal also includes a new method for distributing funds that weighs such factors as the reception of migrants and unemployment levels rather than simply economic output. Such a scheme would likely favor southern states that continue to struggle with those types of problems, as opposed to eastern nations that do not.

Of the €373 billion allocated to cohesion policy, funds for Italy's poorest regions would rise to €43.4 billion from €35.1 billion, Spain's would grow to €38.3 billion from €31.2 billion and Greece's would increase to €21.6 billion from €17.3 billion.

The three countries are faced with double-digit unemployment, with Italy and Greece serving as the EU's main arrival nations for refugees from Africa and the Middle East, the report said.

The highest share of the cohesion funds among EU states, €72.7 billion, would go to Poland, down from the €82.1 billion allocated to Warsaw in the current budget. Funds for Hungary are also set to fall to €20.2 billion from €23 billion.